Unofficial news and tips about Google

March 2, 2013

Open YouTube Links in Mobile Safari

If you install YouTube's app on an iPhone or iPad, all the YouTube links from Safari will open in the YouTube app. What if you want to open an YouTube video in Safari? Maybe you want to bookmark it or maybe you get a message like "YouTube video not available on mobile" and you need to switch to the desktop interface to watch it. Here's what you need to do:

1. long press the link (tap and hold)

2. select "copy"

3. open a new tab

4. paste the link

5. replace "www" with "m", so that "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" becomes "http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=" and tap "go".

The explanation is that the links to the mobile YouTube site (m.youtube.com) aren't intercepted by the app.

Another option is to install a different browser like Chrome, which doesn't open the YouTube app when you click on a link to a YouTube video. You can also uninstall the official YouTube app and install a third-party app like McTube.

If you're using Android, this trick worked for me in both Chrome and the stock browser: long press the YouTube link and select "open in [new] incognito tab".